Archive for the 'Green' Tag Under 'Orange Punch' Category

The environmental purists would have us all junk our cars and climb aboard those ever-so convenient trains - you know, the type that can't operate profitably without tax subsidies.

Most people intuitively understand cars are more convenient, speedy and provide more freedom of movement getting from here to there.

Guess what. They also are better from the green perspective.

Energy consumption expressed in British Thermal Units per passenger mile show, according to the federal Department of Energy, that in 2009 the average passenger car on the road used about 3,500 BTUs per passenger mile. Light rail used about the same, but only if including congested New York.

This is our favorite news item this week, hands down. The Europeans, so enamored by things green that they have implemented subsidies, mandates and regulations that have nearly strangled their economy, have found a way out of their dilemma.

"Energy from gas power stations has been rebranded as a green, low-carbon source of power by a €80bn European Union programme, in a triumph of the deep-pocketed fossil fuel industry lobby over renewable forms of power," reports the Guardian in Great Britain.

There you have it. To make the green quota, simply reclassify a fossil fuel as green enough. Voila!

It harkens back to the solution suggested for the U.S. during the Vietnam War. Declare victory and go home.

The Europeans, according to the Guardian, have declared gas to be green. The battle is won! Let's celebrate. The Guardian expands on the point, raising what must be troubling consequences for greenies on the continent:

But despite economic woes, joblessness, so many people out of work for so long they quit looking, soaring debt and deficits and the looming threat of even worse on the horizon (ObamaCare), the likable but arrogant president could emerge victorious in November.

Electric cars, which wouldn't even be an option if taxpayers' money wasn't propping them up, don't ultimately save money or cut down pollution. They aren't reliable to get from here to there. But they can look nice, like the Fisker Karma.

Speaking of which, we have this shall we say not entirely unexpected news, courtesy Reuters:

DETROIT, March 8 (Reuters) - A $100,000-plus Fisker Automotive luxury car died during Consumer Reports speed testing for reasons that are still unknown, leaving the struggling electric car startup with another blow to its image.

"It is a little disconcerting that you pay that amount of money for a car and it lasts basically 180 miles before going wrong," David Champion, senior director for the magazine's automotive test center, told Reuters. . .

The breakdown of the Consumer Reports car is more bad news for a company that already recalled some Karmas. Fisker also has changed its chief executive and halted production at its U.S. plant over the past month as it seeks to renegotiate the terms of a $529 million loan from the U.S. Department of Energy.

It seems with all the fervor and all the tax subsidies and all the urgency of impending doom from global warming (yawn), we aren't exactly making great strides in weaning us off coal and oil and onto the breeze that blows where and when it will.

The green lobby, which never found a taxpayer dollar it didn't want to redistribute, insists that we should divert our hard-earned wealth for the greater good by subsidizing things like solar energy.

Even if you buy the reasoning, you might want to know more about how that works in practice. T.J. Rodgers in the Wall Street Journal has a nifty little primer on the details. The Journal's headline pretty much sums it up:

"Subsidizing Wall Street to Buy Chinese Solar Panels"

Just in case you weren't outraged enough. It seems the monied set has gamed the system (gee, there's a surprise) and the only others to profit big time are the Chinese, who incidentally don't have much use for these green energy schemes. They prefer to rely on coal and oil and peddle the gimmickry to U.S. consumers. It's eerily similar to the gaming of ginned up worthless mortgages. How'd that work out?

The environmental movement moves so fast its champions seem to rarely stop for reality checks.

There was the wonderful idea of using corn to create fuel for vehicles that had the entirely foreseeable yet some how unforeseen result of adding to world hunger by gobbling up edible crops and driving up food prices.

There was the terrific brainstorm to create energy with giant windmills somehow without anticipating that the big blades would shred thousands of innocent birds trying to fly from here to there.

There have been so many of these unintended, but reasonably foreseeable consequences you really have to wonder why the greenies don't learn from their mistakes.

Freedom Fest is underway in Las Vegas, Nevada today where prominent political and economic minds come together to discuss, debate and grapple with some of the most pressing issues facing the United States and the rest of the world. On topic that has captured the attention of many of the over 2,000 registered guests is energy and what the future of energy will be in the U.S.

A panel titled “The Future of Energy: Bright or Dim” featured leaders in the energy sector including Mark Plummer, President of Chestnut Petroleum, Bud Belcher of Allied Energy Group, Ron Walblay the CEO of RyHolland Fielder and Rick Rule, the founder of Global Resource Investments.

All of the panelists were very optimistic about the future of energy for the United States, in particular oil. Walblay said he was very optimistic about oil, crude oil in particular. He said that “we all know consumption is not going to go down it is going to go up.” Oil and gas will still be responsible for 60% of our energy needs for the foreseeable future.

All of the panelists made some reference to the Obama administration, in particular the administration's policies towards the domestic oil industry.

When asked which energy has a more promising future—oil or natural gas—Belcher said he liked both but that “Oil is the claim to fame for our future.” He did demure to national gas and said that some government incentives and cast amounts of natural gas will likely make it more sought after in the near future. The other panelists took essentially the same stance.